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How to Use Children's Books to Talk About Race and Racism | Parenting Tips & Advice | PBS KIDS for Parents

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​Storytime opens up new worlds for our children. Here are seven ways Dr. Aisha White recommends using picture books (with questions and conversation starters!) to talk about race and racism.

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RACE MATTERS: AMERICA IN CRISIS
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, this PBS NewsHour special focuses on the frustration pouring out onto American streets, outrage about police brutality, and America's deep systemic racial disparities in the economy, education, criminal justice system and health care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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RACE MATTERS: AMERICA IN CRISIS Anchored by Judy Woodruff, this PBS NewsHour special focuses on the frustration pouring out onto American streets, outrage about police brutality, and America's deep systemic racial disparities in the economy, education, criminal justice system and health care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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If you decide to purchase any of the books listed here, please support Black-owned bookstores & businesses.

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

What better way to be productive while staying indoors than supporting Black businesses. Books are great to help stimulate your brain and keep your thoughts off the craziness happening in the world. With that said, now is the perfect time to crack open those books collecting dust on your shelves.

While many of us are social distancing, online shopping makes it much easier for us to get everything we want and need. If you need some new additions to your book collections, check out these Black-owned online bookstores below.

While the Philadelphia-based bookstore has temporarily closed its physical store, Uncle Bobbies is offering customers the chance to shop for books and audiobooks through their IndieLite and Libro.fm accounts. The bookstore has also set up a GoFundMe to provide financial relief for their staff as they remain closed.

The Key Bookstore offers a fully interactive bookstore experience for consumers engaging them through connection, interaction, events, and savings. Key Bookstore puts its focus on readers following their motto of "divine liberation one page at a time."

Mahogany Books' online store is still open for business even as their physical location is temporarily closed. The D.C. -based bookstore is an independent business that fully supports social entrepreneurship. Their mission is dedicated to meeting the needs of readers "in search of books written for, by, or about people of the African Diaspora."

As Chicago's only Black woman-owned independent bookstore and gallery space, Semicolon Bookstore aims to create a welcoming space for all readers. Although they've temporarily closed their doors in compliance with social distancing, they've asked customers to continue to support them by shopping through their online store with an added ten percent discount.

Hakim's Bookstore is another Philadelphia-based business extending its online services to readers during this time. The bookstore specializes in African-American history stressing the importance of Black people understanding and establishing their cultural identities. They encourage people to support all Black businesses during this time any way they can.

Harriet's Bookshop is an independent bookstore and creative space dedicated to celebrating women writers, artists, and activists. The newly-opened bookstore is adjusting to being a temporary online business, but their store is offering an extensive collection of female authors.

Ashay At The Bay serves as the Bay Area's #1 Black children's bookstore specializing in African American and multi-cultural books. Their online collection features tons of diverse books and stories for children.

The Lit Bar is the only bookstore serving the Bronx community creating a haven for reading, social interaction, and intellectual visibility. The premiere bookstore and wine bar for Bronx residents, while temporarily closed, is still allowing customers to shop for their essential books through their online store.

AfriWare Books has been serving the community for almost 20 years providing a platform to highlight authors, artists, and activists who inspire a sense of cultural pride. Following COVID-19 orders, they've since switched to a new business model to accommodate online book orders for customers.

DTR 360 Books is an online bookstore for both books and other forms of knowledge of every genre appealing to all customers. Their company philosophy is built on information, communication, and education catering to Black readers everywhere.

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10 Black-Owned Online Bookstores to Support While at Home - AfroTech

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What better way to be productive while staying indoors than supporting Black businesses. Books are great to help stimulate your brain and keep your thoughts off the craziness happening in the world. With that said, now is the perfect time to crack open those books collecting dust on your shelves.

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Elementary | Young Adult | Adult Despite the fact that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, there are very few books available for children and young adults on the topic. In addition, there are not enough books featuring families dealing with incarceration.

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Latinx and Latin American Titles | Social Justice Books

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Here are titles on Latinx/Latin American History

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Early Elementary | Elementary | YA/Adult Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Learn about our criteria for selecting titles. Feedback on these lists and suggestions for additional titles are welcome. Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or [...]

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Early Childhood: Learning about Racial Identity

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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A Practical Guide to K-12 Multicultural, Anti-Racist Education and Staff Development

Beyond Heroes and Holidays is an interdisciplinary guide for teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Through lessons and readings, we share examples of how educators, staff, students, and parents can work together to transform the curriculum, rather than simply adding to current frameworks. We also go beyond the classroom to address issues such as tracking, parent/school relations, and language policies. There are readings and activities for pre- and in-service staff development.

Sample Contents

Purchase. (You will be taken to Teaching for Change's webstore.)

Reviews

" Beyond Heroes and Holidays is a find. It provides a rich array of resources, models and strategies for promoting multicultural education. And it can be used by all teachers, new as well as experienced, K-12 as well as university-level. This book is for anyone who has either wondered, 'How can I incorporate multicultural education into my classroom?' More... " - David Stone, Assistant Professor in Counselor Education at Ohio University, Democracy and Education

Beyond Heroes and Holidays "is a must-have for educators at all levels... The editors use the philosophy of critical pedagogy, pioneered by the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire to guide the book. Infused within critical pedagogy is a focus on race and class-based inequity in education that analyzes multicultural education through multiples lenses and from multiple levels: the individual and personal (micro); community (meso); and the societal (macro).

"I personally found this refreshing because too often misuses of what some define as "multicultural education" avoid serious analyses of race and racism in schools and society. If not careful, multicultural education has the potential to be coopted by naive and sometimes well-intentioned educators who have not critically examined their relative positions within a personal, and global context. For many of them, unfortunately, multicultural education is only about heroes, holidays, ethnic foods, and cultural attire, and devoid of serious discussions of race and class-based inequities...

"I highly suggest this book for beginning and advanced multicultural educators, schoolteachers, and college professors across disciplines, as well as activists and intellectuals outside of formal educational institutions." - Jerome E. Morris is a member of Edliberation and assistant professor in the Department of Social Foundations of Education at The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia

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Beyond Heroes and Holidays - Teaching for Change

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A Practical Guide to K-12 Multicultural, Anti-Racist Education and Staff Development Beyond Heroes and Holidays is an interdisciplinary guide for teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Through lessons and readings, we share examples of how educators, staff, students, and parents can work together to transform the curriculum, rather than simply adding to current frameworks.

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Teaching for Change carefully selects the best multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators.

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More than 100 carefully selected lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. When you find a book at this site, please purchase it here. Our titles are linked to Bookshop. A portion of your book purchase helps sustain our work. New Releases Activism and Organizing Africa Afro-Latinx American Indians Arabs […]

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The conversation about race needs to start early and keep happening.

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Credit... Loris Lora

As protests over the killing of George Floyd (and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor) spill into a second week, many parents are wondering how to talk about the deaths and unrest with their children. But just as important in the long run, especially for nonblack parents, is how to keep the conversation about race and racism going when we're not in a moment of national outrage, and to make sure all children see black people as heroes in a wide range of their own stories, and not just as victims of oppression.

In this moment, try to address the killings and protests honestly and in an age appropriate way, said Y. Joy Harris-Smith, Ph.D., a lecturer at Princeton Theological Seminary and the co-author of the forthcoming " The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences."

You can start having conversations about race in preschool, said Jacqueline Dougé, M.D., a pediatrician and child health advocate based in Maryland - children can internalize racial bias between the ages of 2 and 4, according to an American Academy of Pediatrics article that Dr. Dougé co-wrote.

Dr. Collins gave the example of a white child asking why another child had brown skin. A parent can take this opportunity to explain what melanin is, and to talk about how wonderful it is that the world has so many different kinds of people.

Older children will be much more aware of what's going on right now. So find out how much your child knows about the protests, Dr. Harris-Smith said, because kids may know more than we think they do from overhearing the news, their parents talking, or simply noticing what is going on outside in their neighborhoods.

Once you assess what they know, you can have a conversation about the violence against black people without being too explicit with elementary-age children.

Dr. Dougé suggested starting with something like: "There are things happening in the news that are upsetting us. Unfortunately there were police officers that made bad choices for the wrong reasons because of the color of our skin." Dr. Collins said that with children in elementary school, you should focus on how unfairly black and brown people have been treated throughout American history to the present day, because fairness is something all children can understand.

If you live someplace where people are actively protesting and your children have observed some destruction, "First and foremost, reassure them you're there to keep them safe," Dr. Dougé said. But also explain why people are protesting, and show them positive images of protesting now and from history, she suggested.

Make sure to create space for your child to feel however they need to feel about what you're discussing - they may be angry, sad or scared. "When we're not validated in how we feel, it makes it difficult for us to be active participants in our lives," Dr. Harris-Smith said. Dr. Collins suggested that parents can let a child know, "The important adults in her life are working really hard to make sure these injustices don't continue to happen in our city, country and world." Respect your children's feelings if talking about it is too upsetting, but make sure to leave the door open for future conversations, she continued.

In addition to keeping an open dialogue about racism, a way to raise children who are anti-racist is by making sure your home library has books with black people at the center of their stories. Christine Taylor-Butler, the prolific children's author and writer of The Lost Tribes Series, said that she got into children's literature because she wanted to see more stories of black joy. "I want stories about kids in a pumpkin patch, and kids in an art museum," she said. "Not only do we want our kids to read, but we want white kids to see - we're not the people you're afraid of."

"I see students clamoring for books that speak to heart, not oppression based on civil rights," Taylor-Butler added. And she is also a fan of books that tell stories of black triumph and invention, like " Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, " by Chris Barton and illustrated by Don Tate, which is about the black engineer behind the Super Soaker water gun.

With that in mind, I asked several authors and Times editors to offer suggestions of books to read to children. Some are explicitly about racism, but others are stories with nonwhite protagonists. They are broken down roughly by age range; see our list below.

Ultimately, words and books should not be the end of your child's education about race and racism. "The best advice I can give parents is to be models for the attitudes, behavior and values that they wish to see in their children," said Nia Heard-Garris, M.D., an attending physician at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

"It is not enough to talk about racism, you must strive to be anti-racist and fight against racist policies and practices," Dr. Heard-Garris said. If you have the privilege, "make space, speak up or amplify issues of inequity and injustice." Children see everything.

Ezra Jack Keats's books about Peter ("The Snowy Day," "A Letter to Amy," "Hi, Cat!," "Whistle for Willie")

"I love all of Ezra Jack Keats's books about Peter, because they show a black boy in the city and the stories are just about his curiosity, his bravery and his being a kid. They are beautiful meditations on the interiority of black childhood without trauma while still feeling very black." - Kaitlyn Greenidge, NYT Parenting contributor and author of the novel " We Love You, Charlie Freeman "

" Saturday, " written and illustrated by Oge Mora

"This book is pure joy. A mom and her daughter, Ava, always look forward to Saturdays because it's the one day of the week they get to spend together without school or work. On this particular Saturday, though, they experience a series of disappointments. Nothing seems to be going as planned. Still, thanks to Ava they figure out a way to enjoy their time together. A quiet yet profound picture book."

- Matt de la Peña, a Newbery Medal-winning author of seven Young Adult novels and five picture books, including " Last Stop on Market Street "

" Hair Love," by Matthew A. Cherry. Illustrated by Vashti Harrison.

"Written by a former N.F.L. wide receiver and now an Oscar-winning short film, 'Hair Love' tells the story of a black father learning to do his daughter's hair for the first time and the special bond they share."

- Meena Harris, author of " Kamala and Maya's Big Idea "

" Each Kindness," by Jacqueline Woodson. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis.

"A new girl, Maya, shows up at school, and the whole class, including Chloe, our main character, shuns her because she's shabbily dressed and seems different. This goes on for a while, and then Maya is suddenly gone, and Chloe realizes she's missed her chance to be kind. This is a powerful picture book that bravely ends with regret."

- Matt de la Peña

" The Youngest Marcher, " by Cynthia Levinson. Illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton.

"It's one of the more shocking and little-known stories of the civil rights movement: In 1963, the City of Birmingham jailed hundreds of kids for joining the Children's March. Among them was 9-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks, taken from her family to spend a week behind bars, eating 'oily grits' and sleeping on a bare mattress. Levinson and Newton keep her story bright and snappy, emphasizing the girl's eagerness to make a difference and her proud place in her community."

- Maria Russo, former children's book editor at The New York Times

" Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice," by Veronica Chambers. Illustrated by Paul Ryding.

"Chambers, who is the senior editor of special projects here at The Times, has pulled together 35 inspiring stories from the past 500 years of history, each with a lesson for our kids about how to fight injustice in their own lives."

- Jessica Grose

" Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness," written and illustrated by Anastasia Higginbotham

"An honest explanation about how power and privilege factor into the lives of white children, at the expense of other groups, and how they can help seek justice."

- Meena Harris

" All American Boys," by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

"This is a brilliant look at the effects of police brutality from the perspective of two teen boys: one white and one black. We get inside both of their minds and watch them grapple with the weight of something that is way too familiar in our country. "

- Matt de la Peña

" Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You " by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

"Reynolds and Kendi have created a book that slyly draws attention to the page itself. 'Uh-oh. The R-word,' they write. The word that 'for many of us still feels Rated R. Or can be matched only with the other R word - run. But don't. Let's all just take a deep breath. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale and breathe out' - and here, the text breaks apart to give us the dangerous word - 'race.'"

- Kaitlyn Greenidge: Read her full review here.
If you have other books you love on this theme, email us with a list of your favorites and we will run an article with your suggestions.

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These Books Can Help You Explain Racism and Protest to Your Kids (Published 2020)

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The conversation about race needs to start early and keep happening. As protests over the killing of George Floyd (and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor) spill into a second week, many parents are wondering how to talk about the deaths and unrest with their children.

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Parents and other caregivers are seeking resources to help them hold children through the current, terrible wave of racialized violence, which is exacerbated by the tensions and vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As scholars, writers, and parents who use books to connect with our children and spark conversations with them, we've developed this book list to help engage the broad range of emotions and needs of diverse children in our multiracial society. In some cases, we've highlighted worthy, albeit lesser-known titles. Some are older books, some are newer, and a few will publish later this year but are available for pre-order now. This list skews heavily towards #ownvoices books and is arranged alphabetically by title.

Please use these books to help you do the work of making the world a safer, more equitable place for all children.

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20 Picture Books for 2020: Readings to Embrace Race, Provide Solace &...

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As scholars, writers, and parents who use books to connect with our children and spark conversations with them, we've developed this book list to help...

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Children's Books that address race, racism, & resistance

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Children's Books that address race, racism, & resistance

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List of 31 children's books from The Conscious Kid